Horn of Africa: Relief efforts continue amid immense suffering

With a historic drought intensifying a food crisis and famine that continues to threaten lives, World Vision continues its response in devastated areas of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Watch a slideshow of images from the crisis, taken by World Vision’s Jon Warren, and check below for updates on our relief efforts.

It’s a daunting figure: According to the United Nations, more than 13.3 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa. The year 2010-2011 is predicted to be among the driest on record in 60 years.

In project areas where World Vision already works in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, more than 2.5 million people are affected. It is our plan to reach all of them with some form of assistance. We’re also reaching an additional 400,000 people in need of food aid in Tanzania.

With the support of generous donors, we are helping to save lives and sustain livelihoods through interventions such as:

Distributing therapeutic food, in partnership with the World Food Program, especially for children and women

Improving water and sanitation by trucking in water, rehabilitating wells, and providing water storage tanks

Providing assistance for refugees and displaced families in camps

Supporting agriculture by providing seeds and food for livestock

Kenya: What we’ve done so far

The irony of drought is that when the rain finally does arrive, the parched earth often can’t absorb water quickly enough. This is exactly what has been happening in Kenya’s Turkana region, with the resulting floods hampering ongoing relief efforts.

However, World Vision is committed to providing short-term relief and long-term recovery. In addition to the general interventions mentioned above, our efforts in Kenya so far include:

Providing kits with items like blankets, mosquito nets, cooking pots, and more to refugees and displaced families

Partnering with ShelterBox to construct thousands of short-term shelters and tents

Helping build resilience though projects like water storage systems, planting trees, and setting up irrigation systems

Somalia: Specifics and prayer requests

The UN has officially declared famine in five regions of Somalia, where lack of rain and soaring food prices have resulted in dangerously high malnutrition rates, especially among young children. Nearly 30,000 Somali children have already died from hunger-related causes.

World Vision has worked in Somalia since 1992, but in 2010, armed groups demanded that most aid organizations leave the south-central area of the country. Frustratingly, even now, we are only able to work in the Somaliland and Puntland regions — not in the epicenter of the famine, due to lack of security for aid workers.

Please join us in prayer that the situation will change, and that World Vision and other organizations will be granted safe access to bring life-saving food and care to the children and families who are in such dire need.

In the areas where we are able to work in Somalia, we are intervening through cash-for-work programs, restoring water catchments, and constructing new boreholes. Meanwhile, nearly 700,000 Somalis have fled to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, where we are providing assistance.

Ethiopia: Initial 90-day response

A recent outbreak of measles at a refugee camp in Dollo Ado (near the Somali border) is increasing child mortality rates as tiny, malnourished immune systems struggle to cope with cramped living conditions. In Ethiopia, we are responding with:

Three ways you can help

World Vision thanks everyone who has offered support in responding to the drought, food crisis, and famine in the Horn of Africa. Donations and prayers are both greatly appreciated. You can also help by sharing information about this humanitarian emergency with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog.

Please pray specifically for aid organizations like World Vision to reach those who are suffering most — particularly in presently inaccessible areas of Somalia, where famine has been declared in multiple regions. Pray also for rain to come to this parched region of Africa, and for relief to come to families who are struggling just to survive.